19 | Making Your First Hire

Introduction

Well folks, it’s been a good run. 18 Episodes isn’t too shabby. Someone done decided to let Kevin drive this thing, and to be honest, it’s a bit of a train wreck. No offence to Kevin; I’m sure he did the best he could. Sorry, not sorry.

For someone who floated naming the show after himself, Jeremy has been conspicuously absent for several episodes. Can anyone confirm that he’s actually alive? And when do the hosts start looking for a replacement? I mean, I know a snarky, humorous show notes writer that could be convinced to be on the show for the right amount of money. Get with my agent.

The Show

In this episode, the hosts discuss hiring your first employee. When do you know it’s the right time to hire? How do you find qualified people?

The hosts suggest that the time to hire is when you find that you don’t have time to do things that energise you. James calls these areas in which you have the most impact your “super powers.” Once you are doing more admin work or other stuff that’s outside your super power, you should think about hiring someone.

From the outside, Rob says that it seems like he always has what he needs. When it was time to hire his first employee, he knew someone who had just come available. When it was time for the next, he already had someone lined up. While this may seem easy, he says, it’s actually the result of cultivating relationships with awesome people.

James refers to this technic with a generic sports metaphor: “keep your bench warm.” By that he means to keep your eyes open in your circle of influence to see where your next hire may come from. Keep in mind that the person you hire may not currently be performing the same job that you would need them to. That’s ok. Both Rob and James suggest that it’s more important to hire the right person and then find a position for them.

Our Recommendations

Rob recommends a script writing program called Slug Line, and he teaches the rest of the podcast what a Slug Line is. Of course, yours truly already knew what a Slug Line was. In fact, I have a great spec script about a secret service agent who’s also a baker that falls in love with a nerdy librarian. I wrote it for Spielberg, but he wound up passing on it because of creative differences. If you’re a big time Hollywood producer or director, let me know. Then I can finally stop writing show notes for quick cash.

If you’ve got a lot of extra cash lying around, James has a great recommendation for you! Just go out and buy an iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil, then download a program called Good Notes. That’ll let you replicate the usefulness of a notepad and pencil without the need to actually carry around the notebook and pencil. If you don’t have the money to invest in that setup, I’ll sell you an eyePad Pro, which is a legal pad with the eyePad logo at the top with a mechanical pencil attached via a string. You’ll get all the best parts of the Apple iPad: portability, ease of use, point and click interface, etc. without spending all that money. Just $79.99 each.

Kevin decides to get super nerdy and recommend that you play a tabletop RPG like Dungeons & Dragons. He claims that it’s a great way to be creative and cooperatively tell a great story. We all know that D&D, as the kids call it, is really just Fantasy Football for nerds. Apparently nerds like Kevin think that D&D, and tabletop games like it, are mainstream enough to recommend them on a podcast about business. I remember when nerds were polite and kept that stuff to their mom’s basements. Rob volunteers Kevin to run a D&D game for you if you are in the southeastern Tennessee area.